Female Advisors Have Advantage, Study Says

Women advisors have larger client accounts and price more consistently, according to a new study from PriceMetrix, the Toronto-based practice management software and data services company. They also tend to serve more female investors in their books of business.

These qualities represent significant advantages, according to Doug Trott, president and CEO of PriceMetrix. "Taken together, these factors suggest women advisors are better positioned than men for future success."

Women make up only 12% of the advisor workforce in the United States and Canada, PriceMetrix estimates. The typical female advisor has 56 "large" householdsdefined as having $250,000 or more in assetsand 72 small households, according to the study. The median male advisor, on the other hand, has 51 large households and 78 smaller ones. The average household for female advisors has $178,000 in investable assets, compared with $152,000 for men. "We have consistently found over time that advisors do better when they concentrate on large households and pare back their smaller ones," Trott said in a press release.

While fees charged by men and women were similar, the study found that women priced more consistently than men. Among female advisors, fees range from a discounted 0.34% on assets to 1.29% on the upper enda band of less than one percentage point. Although some male advisors charge higher fees, their fees range more widely, from 0.33% to 1.58% of AUM.

One surprising statistic: Female advisors tend to serve clients of both genders fairly evenly, with only slightly more female clients. But male advisors, on average, have a lot more male clients56% men and 44% women.

"Ultimately, neither X nor Y chromosomes determine the quality of an advisor's practice. The advisor does," Trott says. "The prerequisites for success, though, are a consistent pricing strategy and knowledge of where opportunities lie in one's book."